Ηρακλής Οικονόμου

Today’s menu, here at GME is more than fascinating. You see, it combines the emotionally charged theme of roads and streets with the beautiful melodies that characterise Greece’s ultimate cultural product; the art song genre. The poetry of late-night roads meets the poetry of grand lyricists such as ...

Today, we will be enjoying a rather predictable partnership between Greek rock and the theme of streets and roads. Why predictable? Because the roads contain all the mystery, the dynamism, the freedom found in rock. They are unexpected, unknown, noisy and burning, just like our rock songs are. From...

Roads are a permanent theme of Greek popular song; they represent fate, motion, life itself, with its multiple options and choices, its dilemmas, its dead ends, its fresh starts. Roads can be wide but they can also be narrow, tired and tiring, straight or with obstructions, empty and closed. And those...

Antonis Vardis was a major composer and singer-songwriter who sadly passed away on September 2, 2014, at the age of just 66. In his massive 40-year career, he collaborated with several major singers, including George Dalaras, Vassilis Papakonstantinou, Haroula Alexiou, Christina Maragozi, Manolis Lidakis...

Throughout the week that starts today, here at GME, we will be exploring the theme of streets and roads and other urban paths in Greek music. Today, we start with a tribute to the streets of Athens. Why? Well, because I somehow miss urban songs, i.e. songs that contain references to urban themes and...

Undoubtedly, Stelios Kazantzidis and Sotiria Bellou became famous thanks to their contribution to folk, popular song. However, it is interesting to note that art-song composers also entrusted them with their creations; from Mikis Theodorakis to Elias Andriopoulos and from Manos Hadjidakis to Dionysis...

Stelios used to say: “My homeland has been tyrannizing me, torturing me since I was a three-month-old baby. It is one of the reasons why I sing with pain, because I sing for myself first and then for the world”. Sotiria had her own fair share of persecution and hardship, starting with the abuse tha...

Sotiria Bellou was a generous person. Throughout her ups and downs, she offered her help without thinking. But she did not get the same help from others, when she needed it; this was her only complaint. As for Stelios Kazantzidis, vocalist Martha Frintzila once told me: “This voice that rises and f...

Stelios Kazantzidis and Sotiria Bellou are two voices that became symbols of the pain, the desires, the hardships and the visions of postwar Greeks – both those who stayed in the country and those who emigrated in search of a better life. With their popular songs, these two vocalists were loved fanatically b...

Throughout the week that starts today, we will be celebrating the legacy of two magnificent vocalists whose recordings marked the entire evolution of Greek music, and especially the rebetiko and popular song. The one was born on August 22, 1921 and the other on August 29, 1931. Our destination: Sotiria...

From the meatballs of Sakis Boulas to the little red mullet of Vangelis Germanos and from the avgolemono of Margarita Zorbala to the …fried dreams of Arleta, the Greek cuisine has been a source of funny or satirical songs. Also, several children’s songs have been inspired by food and cooks, including two...

Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diets. And it has also been an important part of Greek song, as bread appears regularly as a symbol of welfare and justice, signalling...

Why did they set rice on fire in Vietnam, as Savvopoulos sings? Mikroutsikos asks: Do merchants even know what rice is, or do they only care about its price? Tzimis Panousis is trying to figure out whether tzatziki and souvlaki is Greece’s actual contribution to Europe. And Ypogeia Revmata band warn: T...

Fish and fishermen – these are the themes of the songs that we are listening to today here at GME. Giorgos Mouflouzelis goes fishing, Vaggelis Korakakis tells the story of some prodigal fishermen, and Opisthodromiki Kompania sings an anthem for a fishing boat named Saint Nicholas. As for Babis Goles and Stelios Kazantzidis, they remind us of the fact that “the big fish eats the small one” – something that is true not only for the seas but also for the society. Τραγούδια για ψάρια και ψαράδες Ψάρια και ψαράδες – αυτά είναι τα μοτίβα των τραγουδιών που ακούμε σήμερα ... Read more

Throughout the week that starts today, here at GME, we shall be celebrating the Greek cuisine and, of course, the songs that contain references to it, to food and to its social significance. Today, Sakis Rouvas is cooking spaghetti, Arleta is dancing a “tsifteteli” with vinegar, Thanasis Gaifyllias rem...

With this episode, we conclude our week-long tribute by turning to some relatively recent studio and live recordings of his songs by prominent Greek vocalists.

The Earthbound is a Greek band formed in Athens in 1998 by six members and former members of The Last Drive, Honeydive, Rockin' Bones and Engine-V. The band is led by prominent rock figures Alexis Kalofolias and Thanos Amorginos. After playing locally for about a year, the Earthbound recorded its debut...

The third part of our week-long tribute to Greek garage and psychedelic rock in the past and present turns to the 1980s, a decade of explosive creativity and originality. Our track list includes six bands that marked the alternative rock discography of that decade: Morel, En Plo, Without a Necklace,...